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POSTERS: Chemical and Biopesticide Control I

P-131 - Meta-analysis reveals environmental drivers of wheat grain yield response to fungicide application timing to control stripe rust.

Monday, August 4, 2025
3:45 PM - 4:30 PM HST
Location: Exhibit Hall 3
Abstract Text: Stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) is a destructive wheat disease globally that is managed with a combination of genetic resistance and fungicides. We used meta-analysis, a tool for synthesizing results from individual studies, to investigate the influence of application timing on fungicide efficacy. We also explore incorporating environmental variables as moderators of fungicide efficacy, a concept that has only seen limited application in plant pathology. A network meta-analysis was conducted of studies from the Plant Disease Management Reports database (n = 87), using yield difference from the untreated check (UTC) as the effect size. We compared the efficacy of single applications pre- and post-flag leaf emergence (FLe), as well as dual applications (both pre- and post-FLe) for controlling stripe rust and improving yield. We explored the effects of the cumulative number of rust favorable days (7°-12°C and >87%) during a series of critical growth stage windows as moderators (explanatory variables). The results indicated that single fungicide applications made pre- or post-FLe resulted in similar yield differences (921 kg/ha; 21% improvement over UTC vs. 1013 kg/ha; 23% improvement over UTC, respectively). Dual applications resulted in significantly greater yield differences than single applications (1316 kg/ha; 30% improvement over UTC). Environmental conditions influenced the efficacy of different application timings with fungicides providing greater yield responses when weather favored disease development.